Tue 9th August - It's a hot one!

4th time I'm writing this entry - as the connection is cut off. Damn hard typing this on blackberry with unreliable internet connections.
So, hot and sticky today, the kind you barely breathe for the humidity in the air, let alone run and train. I stayed up well past the 10pm curfew catching with bad news in markets and London. I was using blackberry sitting in my bed and had couple of kamikaze fat bugs dropping from the ceiling on my screen and lap. I am almost non chalant about it..I just flicked them off me and the bed and I crass with my designated bug-killer slipper. In fact, we have become very profficient with Theodore in exterminating creepy crawlies; he spots the and I kill them and get rid of the evidence. He is very deft with the swatter - so he does the flies - he combines Shaolin jumps whilst doing this.
We gave elective Tai Chi a miss at 6am as we are both very stiff. I woke up with shooting pains up my legs and arms at 3am - so much for taking it in my stride. We went through the 3 other Shaolin classes - total 4hrs, 2.5 before lunch and 1.5hr after. The running alone before each class is a killer in this heat. We are changing 3 times per day and we are running out of clean, dry clothes.during the Shaolin jumps and rolls, I managed to get through the forward rolls we each had to perform on a line of mattresses in front of everybody else, but was excused for the backwards. Then it got quite spectacular with some seriously fit people able to follow Zhang shifu in his acrobatics. The master performed double rolls in the air amongst other. He is poetry in motion and totally effortless. After the last class finished at 4.30 we all dash for the 3 showers as we all queue in our swimming costumes and towels shouting to the lucky ones inside the cubicles to hurry up. After refreshing myself I had permission from the shifu to leave the compound and go to the supermarket to buy few things we needed. I took the bus outside the academy - all the passengers just stared at me which is what Chinese do with foreigners. Difficult to get used to. I went to a different supermarket today..I got a little too early and was saved by a woman whom I asked for directions - not knowing how to answer in English she grabbed me on to her moped and took me there - aufully nice of her. At the supermarket I was the only foreigners amongst hundeds of shoppers and staff. They all gawped at me so much so I had to feel my head for any protruding horns. Somehow managed to find all the items I wanted not for any help I got given - nobody spoke a word of english - oh I lied, they can say hello. Got a taxi back - Everybody knows Wushoo tsiao..at 7.30 - attended 1hr of Mandarin lesson with Lia, one of the translators. It was just me and a french guy so almost private. We learnt how to buy train tickets and ask for train timetablesn etc. Tomorrow will come in handy as I will be going to Qufu to buy train tickats to Zheng Zhou for Fri 12/8 as a bunch of us will be going to The Shaolin temple and Song mountain for the weekend.
Then I did stayed up late watching a movie with Theo - Notorious, about Biggy Smalls the Notorious B.I.G. - surprisingly good ..took me ages to sleep and I could feel every bone and muscle in my body aching!